Part 1: I fished with Darren & Blair today on another local lake for smallies. Due to the extreme numbers today, it will be in two parts! It’s hard to believe that at this time of the year we can have a day with air temps in the mid 70’s, but we did. This day was to begin with a light wind from the south and water temps almost 60 degrees. Darren hadn’t had his line in the water for more than 15 seconds as I was explaining to Blair how to properly drag a spider grub when his rod was bent over, solid. This was to be the first of so many that they were about to experience! Darren landed a smallie around 2.5 pounds and was back at it immediately as another fish was instantly hooked up by him again. Poor Blair hadn’t even been able to get his jig to the bottom and Darren was already two up on him. It wasn’t long before Blain was also experiencing the same feeling as he too was with bent rod. I decided that if we were to keep any in the livewell for photos a little later, they would have to be at least 4 pounds and released each of the first ten or so. Eventually, they began to hook up with only bigger fish in the 3.5 to 4.5 pound range and the livewell began to fill. There were doubles being hooked on a regular basis and fish were coming aboard as fast as they could get their lines into the water. Being more experienced, Darren was definitely hooking up more often. Blain was just thrilled to be into so many quality fish that he didn’t even care. Drift after drift in deeper water, there were big fish being caught. Darren always wanted to catch a smallie over 5 pounds, but had never actually done this before. He finally had one on and was about to bring it to net when Blain made an attempt to reach for it. This was not to be as the fish actually jumped over the net and spit out the tube, leaving Darren a little bitter. The next fish Blain was into was a real beauty of almost 5 pounds and Darren said, « where’s the net, it’s payback. » There were just so many fish that even after he missed the 5 pounder, it didn’t matter. The livewell was so full of 4 to 5 pound bass that we decided to take the first of what was to be three photo shoots. Once done, we released the bass and continued to pound « Big Heavy’s » once again. It wasn’t even noon and they had probably landed 40 or more smallies up to almost 5 pounds. There was bigger and even better to come! Between trying to eat and having his phone ringing, Darren seemed like there was nothing he could do wrong as his rod was constantly being bent over. It only takes one hand to hook the fish! In the next couple of hours, they both managed to hook into 10 to 20 fish apiece. You guessed it, another photo shoot was about to happen as there really wasn’t any more room in the livewells once again. Blain was still in awe as he held up some of these huge bass they had just caught. It wasn’t so long ago that they had just taken photo’s and here they were once again. A few quick pictures and back to the depths they went once more!

Part 2: The afternoon bite continued to be great for a while longer in the deeper water and then the fishing just slowed down. We were still catching decent fish, just not as many as before. I thought it was time for a change and decided to try another area nearby, casting tubes. It took a few minutes for both of them to get the hang of it as I repeatedly showed them with multiple hook-ups. Eventually they were able to work these baits through the rocks and weeds and also began to hook up. Look out, more big fish once again made their way to the livewell for a later shoot. Blair was actually getting the hang of this and hooking up with more fish than Darren when all of a sudden he also slammed into what felt like a rock. As it began to move, he realized that it felt bigger than most of the fish he had hooked into during the day. It wasn’t until the fish went airborne that we all realized just how big she actually was. « There’s your 5 pounder », I said! « Get the net & not you Blain », was his response. This one was meant to be as I slipped her into the net and brought it aboard. We had to weigh this fish and she went 5 pounds 3 ounces. Definitely Darren’s personal best! He was thrilled for a brief moment until Blair slammed into another bruiser. When she went into the air, it looked bigger than the one just landed and I thought Darren’s glory was about to be shattered. When I slid this one into the net, she definitely looked bigger than the first one and I had to weigh her as well. It was touch & go for a second as the scale was moving between 5.4 & 5.3 before finally settling on 5 pounds 3 ounces. They were clones that both weighed the same. One was a little longer and the other was a little fatter. After that, the 3 & 4 pounders didn’t even get them excited as I netted several more before calling it a day. We took a few more pictures, released the fish and casted a bit more before packing it up and heading home. If ever there was a day to be on the water, it was today. I have had plenty of great days with customers, but this would have to rank in the top three overall. There were quality fish all day long and I don’t think that there was ever a period of time that we went more than 5 minutes without someone being hooked up. If I had to guess, I would have to say that there were 75 to 100 smallies landed with another 25 or 50 also either missed or lost as well. The strange thing is that about 50% of these fish were in excess of 3.5 pounds. It was definitely Darren & Blair’s best day ever on the water as they are probably still thinking of how many fish the two landed. Overall, yeah you guessed it!!!!!!!

I fished with Jim and his wife Marie for 2 days on Lake Champlain for smallmouth bass. There is always a competition between these two, but today Marie brought a score pad! Apparently, she wanted to keep score of the beating she planned on giving to her husband! The weather was a little chilly as we began day one in temperatures below 40 degrees. Fortunately, there was little to no wind as a wind chill would have really made it feel cold. Water temps were barely 56 degrees at the start and almost 60 degrees by the end of the day. Jim wasted no time drawing first blood with a nice smallie of 3.5 pounds on a tube in 5 feet of water. Marie couldn’t let him get away with that one and hooked up on her own bass at the same time and landed it before he did. The bet is usually first fish, biggest fish and most fish. Score one for Marie with the quick landing! Plenty of other smallies were being taken by both parties on tubes and spinner-baits, but not to the degree that I had expected. I think the water was a little too cold to get into the numbers of aggressive fish and we tried another area nearby. This time it was to be slightly deeper as we dragged tubes in water 10 to 12 feet. A number of smaller fish were being caught once again and I relocated once more. When the sun finally warmed the shallower water, the fish began to cooperate. We spent the rest of the day in anywhere between 2 & 8 feet deep and they continued to land a mix of both small & large fish up to 4.5 pounds. Day two found us more in open water on the lake and at the mercy of Mother Nature. The weatherman had called for light winds and waves of 1 foot or less. We were greeted with 10 knot winds from the south and 1 to 3 foot rollers in our starting spot. The water temps on the open lake were almost 60 degrees by the start of the day and slightly higher towards the end. Air temps were upper 40’s at the start and closer to 70 by the end as well. Spinner-baits and jerk-baits were thrown at the start and some fish up to 3 pounds were landed soon after. The wind was making for tough casting in certain areas after a while and I thought we would try some of the deeper water offshore. By utilizing the wind and doing a drift & drag, we were able to get into some of the larger smallies of 4 pounds or better. Marie managed to catch a bunch of fish on spider grubs and football jigs whenever we drifted over the rocky areas in 25 to 30 feet of water. There were definitely plenty of fish as well as bait marking out in 20 to 30 foot deep. I wish some of these fish were a little more cooperative! There was even a freshwater drum of about 7 pounds landed in amongst the bass. From the deep water, we decided to try a little more shallow water once the sun had warmed the rock piles and both Marie & Jim managed to land a few more before we called it a day. They probably managed to land around 60 fish in the two days on the water and Marie lost track of who led who. Eventually, they decided to call it a draw! It was a chilly weekend, but a good one nevertheless!

Today, I had the pleasure of fishing with Mike and his father Steve on a local lake. The last time Mike was with me, it was with his son Ryan and he thought it would be nice to have his dad experience some of the same action. As it turned out, this was to be an unbelievable samllmouth bass day! Unlike the last time, today was a day with sunshine and occasional cloud cover. No Rain Gear! The air temps hit the mid 60’s and the water temps were around 59 degrees in most areas. We began by dragging tubes and spider grubs in some deeper water and it wasn’t long before Steve was into his first smallmouth, ever. The start of a good day is when it takes less than 30 seconds to hook up! Mike had a rough time just hanging onto the bass as many were lost before his first one came aboard. The fish were biting a little light and letting go shortly after they were hooked. Eventually, we made the necessary adjustments and they were into plenty of fish on each and every drift we made. The winds were almost non existent making for a pleasant day on the water. Smallies averaging 2.5 pounds were being caught regularly and an occasional 3.5 to 4 pounder as well. By mid day, the sunshine had been out long enough to warm the shallower water and I thought we would give it a try for a while. It was definitely the right decision as Steve & Mike had multiple hook-ups, mostly on tubes. A few of the larger fish were taking senko’s too! From deep to shallow to mid depth, they had action all day long. If all the fish were to be landed, the total would have exceeded 75 bass, but they had to settle for about 60 percent of the hook-ups instead. All in all a great day for both size and numbers.

Today I had the pleasure of fishing with Hugues & his son Olivier as well as a Gilbert, a business associate of Hugues. We headed to the St-Lawrence River & dragged tubes & spider grubs all day long. With this many people on board, safety comes first. No treble hook lures rigged! The weather held out for us all day with overcast skies and cool N winds until afternoon. Fortunately they were light and not too cold! The air temps were in the mid 60’s and the water temps were 59 degrees. The biggest problem we were going to have to face was the water clarity. It looked like coffee with two cream! I had a hard time finding areas that the fish would actually be able to see our presentations. The action wasn’t fast & furious like I had anticipated as we picked a couple here & there in pretty much every spot we fished. Olivier definitely had the hot hand in the morning as he surpassed everyone on board. Gilbert managed to land the biggest with one over 5 pounds and another topping the 4 pound mark. Hugues also had a bruiser on for a short while until she decided to go airborne and threw the hook. In the afternoon, we finally got to an area that began to produce steady action for a while. Both father & son hooked up and landed a couple of smallies at the same time. Finally, a double! Gilbert stood his ground as well with a couple of bass and a nice walleye to his credit. All the usual areas had some fish, but the visibility definitely played a role in the numbers today. We hit a couple more areas and they all landed a few more fish before we called it a day and headed to the ramp. It was definitely a challenge today as 25 or so smallies up to & over 5 pounds came to the net. There were plenty of others lost and missed as well. All in all a pretty decent day just drifting & dragging!